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Building an Addition: Roofing Concerns

It can be so much fun planning for a new addition to your home. Choosing the cabinets to fill a new kitchen space, the pool table for your new game room, or the paint colors for your new master bedroom is exciting. However, building an addition also means conquering a number of obstacles. One of those, of course, is determining how the new roof will meet the existing roof. When two roofs are abutted, there can be added risk of leaks and weakness, which means more calls to the professionals in roof repair in Houston, TX. That is exactly why this project must be done with great care. Here are a few of the solutions commonly used when putting an addition on a private or commercial property.

Flat Roof to Sloped In order to make the transition from pitched to flat, without risking leaking, the new roof will have to involve a ledger board. This is generally a 2×6 or 2×8 board used for added support and bolted to the existing roof and is meant to add support and a level starting point for the new surface. There are a few different ways that flat roofing structure can be laid out, but regardless of how it is executed, it will be tied directly to the ledger board and the seam should be properly treated by one of the many Sugarland, TX, roofing companies to prevent leaking in the future.

The Meeting of Two Slopes When the new roof isn’t going to follow the same slope as the existing home, but is going to have a pitch of its own, the issue is how to connect the two. Again, some of the roofing material will have to be removed, so the understructure of the existing roof is exposed to make way for the connection. Valley rafters supply the same sort of starting point as the ledger board mentioned above. The initial trusses will have shorter, angled legs to address the pitch of the existing roof, slowly growing in length, until they reach the end of the existing roof, where they reach their full length and move outward to the end of the addition. This new roof will be covered in the same manner as the existing roof has been.

Continuing the Slope of the Existing Roof In some instances, it is possible to follow the existing slope of the house and simply extend the building off of the end of the home. This is one of the easiest connections made when it comes to the roofing aspect of the construction. A few of the shingles at the end of the home, where the addition is being added, will likely have to be removed and replaced, but then the same pattern can be followed along the entire surface of the added roof .

Of course, this process is a delicate one and should be handled by someone very familiar with the type of project being completed. An engineer should ensure that the existing roof can tolerate any added weight as a result of the adjoining roof and contractors should be called in to properly install the framing.